1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to digital communications. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method which cancels the global pilot signal and unwanted traffic signals from a received code division multiple access signal thereby removing them as interferers prior to decoding.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Advanced communication technology today makes use of a communication technique in which data is transmitted with a broadened band by modulating the data to be transmitted with a pseudo-noise (pn) signal. The technology is known as digital spread spectrum or code divisional multiple access (CDMA). By transmitting a signal with a bandwidth much greater than the signal bandwidth, CDMA can transmit data without being affected by signal distortion or an interfering frequency in the transmission path.
Shown in FIG. 1 is a simplified, single channel CDMA communication system. A data signal with a given bandwidth is mixed with a spreading code generated by a pn sequence generator producing a digital spread spectrum signal. The signal which carries data for a specific channel is known as a traffic signal. Upon reception, the data is reproduced after correlation with the same pn sequence used to transmit the data. Every other signal within the transmission bandwidth appears as noise to the signal being despread.
For timing synchronization with a receiver, an unmodulated traffic signal known as a pilot signal is required for every transmitter. The pilot signal allows respective receivers to synchronize with a given transmitter, allowing despreading of a traffic signal at the receiver.
In a typical communication system, a base station communicates with a plurality of individual subscribers fixed or mobile. The base station which transmits many signals, transmits a global pilot signal common to the plurality of users serviced by that particular base station at a higher power level. The global pilot is used for the initial acquisition of an individual user and for the user to obtain signal-estimates for coherent reception and for the combining of multipath components during reception. Similarly, in a reverse direction, each subscriber transmits a unique assigned pilot for communicating with the base station.
Only by having a matching pn sequence can a signal be decoded, however, all signals act as noise and interference. The global pilot and traffic signals are noise to a traffic signal being despread. If the global pilot and all unwanted traffic signals could be removed prior to despreading a desired signal, much of the overall noise would be reduced, decreasing the bit error rate and in turn, improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the despread signal.
Some attempts have been made to subtract the pilot signal from the received signal based on the relative strength of the pilot signal at the receiver. However, the strength value is not an accurate characteristic for calculating interference due to the plurality of received signals with different time delays caused by reflections due to terrain. Multipath propagation makes power level estimates unreliable.
There is a need to improve overall system performance by removing multiple noise contributors from a signal prior to decoding.
The present invention reduces the contributive noise effects of the global pilot signal and unwanted traffic signals transmitted in a spread spectrum communication system. The present invention effectively cancels the global pilot and unwanted traffic signal(s) from a desired traffic signal at a receiver prior to decoding. The resulting signal has an increased signal-to-noise ratio.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a code division multiple access communication system receiver which reduces the contributive noise effects from the pilot and active, unwanted traffic signals.
It is another object of the present invention to improve the desired traffic signal SNR by eliminating the noise effects of the global pilot and active traffic signals.
Other objects and advantages of the system and method will become apparent to those skilled in the art of advanced telecommunications after reading the detailed description of the preferred embodiment.